So far for my Christmas Hampers I have made...

Teresa60

Roz_V wrote:

My Xmas Hampers

Probably of no interest to anybody but I want to show off so here goes!! Btw, all my baskets are from Wilkinsons. The hampers will be cellophaned up eventually with a ma-hoo-sive roll I got from the local florists for £20

Foot Care Basket - for one of my friends - contains foot lotion, foot scrub, foot refresher spray (bought when on 3-4-2 in Boots), Nail polish (free when I bought another item in Boots), toe seperators, foot file, nail scissors, nail clippers and some other random object (free kit with my foot spa), and some of those Party Feet gel cushion things bought ages ago when they were on offer!

Purple Pamper Hamper - contains Radox Relax Shower Gel (BOGOF at Boots), shower pouffe (39p Wilko's), bath bomb & bath confetti (part of a set from £land) Rosemary & Lavendar Soap (69p Boots) Candle (99p from Co-Op Department Store) & a Dairy Milk

Lavendar Pamper Hamper - similar to above but more "grown up" Contains soap (as above), White flannel (cheap from Wilko's and tied with a piece of ribbon I had lying around!), White massage sponge (Wilko's cheapie again!), Boots Aromatherapy lavendar bath soak (reduced to clear!) and a tealight and holder (holder was 24p from Asda, tealight was from a huge bag costing about 50p for 100!), and le piece de resistance, a Homemade Lavendar Body Scrub in a £1 jar from Ikea, made using Salt, Olive Oil and Lavendar Essential Oil

Winter Warmer Hamper - Tiger Hot water bottle (£2.99 from Wilko's), Socks (part of a set of 2, £1 from Primark), Mug (99p from the 99p shop), Options Hot Chocolate sachets (4 flavours, 22p each from Tesco), Gloves £4 and scarf £5 from Marks & Spencers' cashmillion range.


In the interests of not taking over this thread with loads of pictures which may not interest anyone, I have posted links to the pictures which I have hosted externally. Anything underlined will take you to a picture!!

ps. I have copied and pasted this post from the OS Christmas Support Thread

Hope you dont mind but I have printed this off to give me some tips!

TheRehn

I just found a three pack of (i think it was) sponge, loofah and body puff thingies for 50p in tesco, it was 3 for 2 also so 9 scrubby type (3 of each kind) for £1, so I think those will be useful to go in some smelly set basket type things I am making
(I'll just give each person one scrubby thing I think )

Do you think it look wierd to put smelly things in the same basket with food things? (eg cake mixes or curd),

What hot chocolate mix recipe do you guys use, or do you just buy a big jar and decant? I tried a homemade recipe that tasted very nice (spicy), but it didn't dissolve properly

Also does anyone ever make dry mixes in a jar/bag for christmas, I made a basket for my cousin once with (homemade) crumble mix, cookie mix, vegetable rice mix and a can of apple pie filling (for crumble). Just thought perhaps homemade mixes might be good in a hamper type thing.

zombiecazz

Home made mixes actually sound like a great idea.

Get some of your herbs from the garden dried. Buy a big cheap bag of couscous make some herb and lemon couscous and some italien couscous (herbs and sun dried tomato). mmh.

New Ideas thanks

bekkki1

I got a lovely basket which was lined from wilkinsons for 99p. they also do packs of 6 or 8 (cant remember which) unlined for £2.99

clarabell1984

clarabell1984 wrote:

Last night I went all out and placed a massive order of toiletries at boots.com. My order cost £100.50 with hopefully 6.5% cashback from Quidco and 2400 points with the blip in their system last night! Got loads and loads of stuff to make up 3 hampers. 1 for Mil and one each for my 2 grandmothers. I bought a set of 3 wicker baskets on ebay costing £6.70 (£2.23 each) and a 80cm x 10m roll of florists cellophane for £4.50. The whole boots order was not all for hampers so all in all the 3 hampers should work out around £20 each including the deduction of cashback and boots points. I know that technically I have had to pay out £24 instead of using the points but the points will come in handy anytime for birthdays etc Am I mad or does this work out good? Never done hampers before

EDIT: Also I had a rake through my draws and I have loads of samples and minatures that I can add in and even wrap some stuff for others.

My baskets were lined also. Try ebay if your getting stuck. Also I was thinking of using shredded tissue paper in mine. Do you think this would look ok?

Roz_V

Thanks lightisfading, and Teresa60 (and anyone else who wants to) is more than welcome to print them off, so long as you don't know me and end up giving identical presents to someone we both know :rotfl:

TheRehn - I have just used the Options flavoured hot chocolate sachets - 22p from Tesco (and most other supermarkets) and come in all sorts of flavours - orange, toffee, white chocolate, mint as well as "normal" belgian chocolate :drool:

Athravan

I just went a little crazy, bought a bulk buy of 15 different empty baskets and mini hampers on ebay, works out about £1 each even with postage and they're all very nice.

Not sure in all what i'm going to use them for, I was thinking-

Aunt - Smellies
Gran - Home made cakes/biscuits/sweets
Mum - Both of the above!
OH - Male Smellies & a alcohol one (have been hoarding some free miniatures and promotional goodies!)
Neighbour - A thank you food/alcohol basket. (Been sooo good to me this year!)

I'm going to have so many baskets left over... but I figured i'd probably find a few people who need things and the rest can go in the attic for easter when the kids get little easter baskets.

Hoping more ideas will come to me for the rest of the baskets

mirakl

loopylass

mirakl wrote:

My trusty WI cookbook has a whole section on diabetic cakes and biscuits. I'll look at it when I get home from work and pick out anything that sounds nice and appropriate for a hamper.

I have recipies for
Diabetic Christmas pudding
Fruit Cake for diabetics

Fruitcake
6oz currants
4oz butter
6oz sultanas
4oz plain flour
4oz wholemeal flour
2 large eggs
4 os sucron (sugar replacement)
2oz mixed peel
1tsp mixed spice
1 level tsp baking soda

Mix well and place in tin greased with sunflour oil.
Bake at a medium heat for 1 hour.

Christmas Pud
110g plain wholemeal flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
110g polyunsaturated marg
2 beaten eggs
juice and rind of 1 lemon
30ml brandy
1 grated apple
2 grated carrots
110g wholemeal breadcrumbs
50g chopped nuts
50g chopped glace cherries
175g currants
165g sultanas
225g raisins

Sift flour, salt and spices tipping any remaining bran back in the bowl
Stir all remaining ingredients and mix well
Divide between two greased pudding bowls, cover with lid or greaseproof paper and steam for 4 1/2hours
Leave to cool and store in a cool dry place for up to two weeks.
To reheat steam for 1 - 1 1/2hours
serve with reduced sugar custard or cream.

StudentLife

Don't know if you've seen chocolate slabs from hotel chocolat:

http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/HALL06/cid/DPT16AWGMI7FZCQI9QSHTFBTUU93EQKZ/chocolate-bars-Chcoslab/

They can't be hard to replicate - lay clingfilm on a baking tray, pour melted chocolate on top, then sprinkle with nuts, seeds, berries, etc leave in the fridge and voila! you have a HM chocolate slab!

Just make sure you don't put it too near the Christmas lights!!

icklejulez

StudentLife wrote:

Don't know if you've seen chocolate slabs from hotel chocolat:

http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/src/HALL06/cid/DPT16AWGMI7FZCQI9QSHTFBTUU93EQKZ/chocolate-bars-Chcoslab/

They can't be hard to replicate - lay clingfilm on a baking tray, pour melted chocolate on top, then sprinkle with nuts, seeds, berries, etc leave in the fridge and voila! you have a HM chocolate slab!

Just make sure you don't put it too near the Christmas lights!!

Just found this thread so thanks to all of you. Just out of interest what type of chocolate do you think I would buy to make some of these chocolate slabs?